Kayla and I have grown fond of quite a few of the children here, and have made friends with several of the teachers. A certain group of teachers invite us to eat with them every day. They put a big flat pan in the middle of the table then cover it with layers of engera, and then dump various containers of shiro, tomatoes, avocados and peppers all over the engera. Everyone at the table eats from the dish with their right hand. Yes, it makes a difference whether you eat with your right or your left. The other day I was asked why I ate with my left hand. I replied that I write, eat, throw a ball and do everything left handed. Zemi enlightened me that evening that one should always give the right hand preference over the left. Shake hands with the right, give something to someone with the right hand, and eat with the right hand. To do something with the left hand could be interpreted as being rude. Interesting, isn’t it? So while I am here, I shall learn to eat with my right hand. And yes, we eat with our hands, not with utensils. Eating with your hand is supposed to make the food taste better because you are touching it and feeling it before it goes into your mouth. Warm fingers in your mouth feel better than a cold fork. Eating this way uses all of your sense
It’s a back to nature type of lifestyle here in many ways, which is a great experience. So how do we wash two week’s worth of clothes? BY HAND! Now, you might have washed a few fine linens and a shirt or two by hand, but have you ever washed two week’s worth of a teenage girl’s clothes by hand? I did today, and it is the last time. I have shown her how it is done, and from here on out Kayla will be responsible for washing her own clothes by hand. I know that this will help her remember to wear her pants at least two to three times before tossing them in her dirty clothes bag. All four of us (Alem, Kayla, Jo Jo and I) spent about two hours scrubbing, wringing, rinsing, wringing again, and hanging clothes on the clothes line. It was quite funny when Jo Jo was rinsing Kayla’s bras and he was squeezing out all the water from them. He wasn’t aware that her bras were any different than the shirts he was also wringing out, but Kayla was so embarrassed that this 18 year old boy was actually handling her underclothes! The whole experience of washing clothes by hand was refreshing and relaxing. Also, when they are washed this way, the clothes retain their color and size. They smell fabulous fresh from the line!
We gave this lady money every time we passed her!
I have a funny toilet story. Zemi’s flush mechanism on her toilet is temporarily broken, so we pour a bucket of water in the toilet to flush it. I was so used to using the bucket that I assumed that is the way it is done other places. For almost two weeks I have flushed the toilet at the Joy Center with a bucket of water. The other day when I needed to use the restroom I noticed that the bucket was empty, so I asked one of the teachers in broken English and sign language where I could fill the bucket up so that I could flush the toilet. She looked at me oddly and showed me how to push the button on the tank of the perfectly working toilet! All I ever needed to do to flush the toilet was to push the button on the tank! Duh!
We have become quite expert in communicating our needs to Alem and to other non-English speaking contacts. We use a lot of sign language for food, drink, let’s go for a walk, where is this or where am I, how much is this, and many others. We have learned a bit of Amharic at the Joy Center. We can say “Enough!” (Beka), count to five, wusha (dog), behg (sheep), abeba (flower), Amesegnalehu (thank you), tenasteleng (good day), selam (hello and peace) and selam alaikum (hello and peace be with you), and quite a few other basic words. We learned a lot working at the Joy Center and living among the locals, and I look forward to learning much more as our trip continues.
I am grateful for the simple things in life like clean clothes and clean water. I am grateful for the friends I have made here. I am thankful for my life and the opportunity to share it with so many others. It seems that every person I meet here enriches my life in some little way. Every day I am becoming a better person than the day before. I can also see these experiences changing the life of my daughter. She is blossoming right before my eyes!
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